My weekend baking project – Sweet potato chocolate cake. Once again, I was recipe hunting on Donna Hay and I came across this recipe. I found it really interesting because firstly, it does not require any oil or butter. Secondly, there was no refined sugar added – the sweetness of the cake comes from the sweet potato and pitted dates. Since sweet potatoes were on specials this week, I’ve decided to give it a try.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe. I used plain flour, cocoa powder and pitted dates instead of buckwheat flour, raw cocoa powder and fresh dates. I found it strange to boil the sweet potatoes because a lot of the sweetness would be lost into the water so I steamed the potatoes instead. Even doing so, I found the batter to be lacking in flavour. So I added honey into the cake batter and it made a huge difference! I would say that this cake has got to be the healthiest cake I’ve ever made and it tasted surprisingly good!

Ingredients

1. 300g sweet potato (Kumara), peeled and cut into cubes
2. 300g pitted dates
3. 1 tsp vanilla essence
4. 120g almond meal
5. 75g plain flour
6. 75g cocoa powder
7. 1 tsp baking powder
8. 3 eggs
9. 160g honey

To make the ganache

1. 220g dark chocolate (I used Lindt 70% dark)
2. 100ml skim milk
3. 30g unsalted butter
4. 1/4 tsp salt

Directions
Preparation time: 30min
Baking time: 30min or when the skewer comes out clean

1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Lightly grease and prepare two 20cm round cake tins with non-sticking baking paper
3. Steam the sweet potato for 20 minutes or until tender. Drain. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Place the date in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside to soak for 10 minutes. Drain.
5. Place the sweet potato, date, honey, vanilla essence and eggs in the food processor and process it until smooth
6. Add in the almond meal, flour, cocoa and baking powder into the mixture and fold it until uniform
7. Spoon the mixture evenly into a lightly greased cake tin and cook for 30 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean
8. Leave it to cool completely

To make the ganache

1. To prepare the ganache, heat up the milk and butter and salt together in a saucepan. Remove it from the heat just before it starts to boil
2. Pour the heated mixture over the chopped up chocolate and mix well until all the chocolate has melted
3. Let the ganache cool down slightly before pouring it over the cake. Using a palette knife, smooth out the ganache

Bon appetite!